It is now widely accepted that regular physical exercise makes it possible to keep the body in good health, to limit the risk of cardiovascular or articular failure, and/or to recover normal functioning of the body after failure thereof. This has a led to unprecedented enthusiasm for physical and/or sports activities such as keep-fit exercises, running, cardio-training, weight training, etc. leading if not to obsession with the body, at least to awareness of the need to look after it, so as to make it last without failing.
It is in this context that there has been a growth in specialist facilities that make various pieces of apparatus available for use by their customers, enabling them to exercise for overall body fitness or for targeting certain portions of the body. All such pieces of apparatus are based substantially on the same principle, namely constraining the user to make an effort that is controlled by means of a device opposing resistance to the user's effort. Sales of such apparatus to private individuals have also developed, but it has been observed that while such apparatus is used fairly frequently soon after purchase, it then tends to be used less and less frequently until, after a few months, it is no longer used at all. That has enabled health and fitness clubs and/or weight training centers to attract customers by emphasizing that they offer personalized training services or coaching, encouraging and motivating members of such clubs to exercise regularly by using the club facilities.
In the medical field, e.g. for physiotherapy and medical rehabilitation, or for determining people's physical capacities, it is also known that patients can be made to do physical exercises by following programs determined by physicians. Such exercises are done on pieces of apparatus situated in a room dedicated for that purpose, and they are supervised by medical staff, and the users of such pieces of apparatus are equipped with sensors for monitoring physiological parameters such as heart rate or lung capacity.
While physical exercise taken indoors in such clubs or rooms offers the advantages of enabling users to be encouraged to exercise regularly and of enabling said users to be supervised and monitored, it suffers from the drawback of constraining users to comply with opening times and to expend physical energy in a closed space that is generally insufficiently ventilated and that presents health risks.